commentator alisha menendez is with us and rolling stone executive editor eric bates. this hour, mitt romney is in wisconsin wallying is support ahead of tuesday's primary. voters in the badger say the, maryland and washington, d.c. will award a combined 9 delegates. if romney runs away with all of them, will he finally seal the deal? how many times can i ask this guahe for real, this may be it. >> this will be it for a very significant portion of the republican establishment. in a campaign, you have three sort of power bases, the establishment of the donors, the media which wants drama and a longer race most of the time. >> we do? >> i think so. i like drama in my races and finally the voter who's want address or the appearance of democracy. so we rather everywhere last cycle people didn't want this thing settled too quickly between barack and hillary. they didn't want this either time either unless they're convinced democracy has run its course and romney is the

legitimate leader. >> this whole process has fatigued people to the point they're lgs to vote for romney. this i thought was the biggest news of the day. there is a new poll out that shows, it's "usa today" poll showing that in swing states it, obama is leadingne-42% assuming he is the nominee. but among women in swing states, obama is crushing romney is, 54 to 36%. let's talk about that a little. >> i think the rise of this entire health care debate or the rerise of this health care debate has been very invigorating for women, not just in terms of the contraceptive issue but imagining that obama care gets overturned. already 208 million american women are benefiting from this care and have care they will not have if the law is repealed. i think in thinking about the fact that it could be repealed, all of a sudden american women are saying well, i've really benefited from this. >> van, you wrote in this fabulous new book which we'll hold up on air multiple times to

plug sales. >> thank you. >> you write about firing up the base. we're going to be talking about that a little bit more in the show. as far as women go, i mean, this is almost it would seem a gift to the obama re-election effort. and it's not just i think is the rhetoric coming from the republican candidates running for president, but if you look at what is happening on the state level, what is happening in state houses across the country, what's going on in congress, the go has resisted reauthorization of the violence against women act. >> i think we're going to look back, that is going to be a tipping point moment. for some people, again, people who are people of faith, you know, the choice issue, but once you start saying we don't care if your daughter is attacked. we don't care what happens to your children, you start gettinging into very scary territory. there's no excuse for it. this is supposed to be a law and order party, the gop. yet, when it comes to women, we don't care. >> the house voted to advance the child interstate abortion notification act which makes it

a crime for young women to have an out of state abortion without parents, including victims of rain or incest. >> that's a use of limited police authority. the whole thing going on with trayvon. we can't have them dealing with trayvon but we can have them tracking down women. >> this is amazing to me. in february, south dakota eventually but debated a law that would expand eventually that would expand justifiable homicide to include killing someone who provides abortions. georgia, lawmakers in georgia have tried to relabel victims of rape and stalking as accusers instead of victims. you talk about the narrative here and look at the numbers. this is a 20-point spread almost between the likely, the presumptive republican nominee and the president. you've got to think if it's not anger towards the gop, it's women who are thinking we've got to stop our country from falling into the hands of these maniacs. >> two things. those numbers are going to

shrink as the race goes on. still, it's a striking number. you put your finger on it. this is not a couple of flip offhandra, by the likes of rush limbaugh. this is a deep seeded ideological position within the republican party and an orchestrated nationwide campaign to roll back the rights of women. i think the voters see that and are going to respond to it. >> one point that's interesting, there's this is very strong narrative that somehow republicans have this neat trick where they distract us was social issues that they don't really care about to get away from the economy where people say a lot of studies show that you don't do as well if you're a regular average worker under republican administrations. it almost has a conspiracy theory element to it. but this is a year where by any stretch, focusing on the economy could be politically good for the republicans. and this is still happening. i think that's because the conspiracy narrative misses a little bit. what you actually have is a sort of an isolated discussion within

the republican party among primarily men and extremely religious folks who don't see women's rights as even a legitimate part of the conversation. and the more they have that among themselves when it's shown to the country, this is what it looks like. >> the question is also, how does mitt romney deal with this? this is a very uncomfortable position for him to be in. he has not stood up to the rhetoric coming out of the right. and we talk about how he needs to show his human side. let's talk -- let's talk a little bit about, this is an incredible, if i can find it, there is -- i mean, mitt romney's humanity is the something we dissect frequently on the show and whether or not it actually exists. >> with tweezers. >> it's like operation. let's hear what he had to say regarding women and ann his surrogate out to the women of america. this is mitt romney yesterday. >> i wish ann were here, my wife were here for a lot of reasons i wish she were here. i wish she were here to answer that question in particular

because she says that she's going across the country and talking with women and what they're talking about is the debt that we're leaving the next generation. and the failure of this economy to put people back to work. >> that's like the one-two punch, right? let's get away from the women talk. i'll have ann talk to you about the economy and prove i do have a heart and soul. >> are these women 1 million years old? which women are running up to her and saying i want to talk to you about the debt. >> if fairness, ann romney is the best surrogate arithmetic romney has going right now. >>sley is by far the best surrogate. getting to your question about his humanity, to say that women are going to win this election is a little overblown. but there is a coalition of women, hispanics, african-americans and young people that showed up in 2008 and are clearly starting to recoalesce in 2012. those are the people -- he has been inhumane to every single one of those groups. the big difference of

course, the first time we got together in 2008, it was a hope election. we were coming together because we thought we could move forward. both parties now, it's going to be a fear election. the right is we're afraid of the socialist, muslim atheist communist president. >> a lot of adjectives. >> how can you be an atheist and muslim? you've got that and we're also afraid of what a tea party presidency would mean. it is unfortunate that the three years after that big moment of hope in many 2008, both sides are now running -- going to have to run fear elections but the right wing is giving us a lot to be fearful about. that's going to drive a lot of turnout. >> this is the quote i was looking for. the times op-ed in the "new york times" by david jabber bonn a writer for the ideally show offering a theory of mitt romney. in much the same way light is both a particle and wave, mitt romney is both a moderate and conservative depending on the situation. it is not that he is one or the

other, he is both at the same time. it's actually -- that's not even the funniest. obviously, that's using physics to describe mitt romney. but at a certain point, he has to lay down the law and say this is what i believe and this is what i don't believe. >> a lot of it comes down to whether you're any good at this as a politician. this is sort of the lil' wayne theory of politicking where he says i got so many styles i am a group. like he's so good at so many different styles that it worked. >> i can't even take that debate on. >> i think that bill clinton and barack obama and often george w. bush were very good at showing different aspects of themselves while maintaining a core type of authenticity that appealed to supporters. mitt romney tries a lot of different things and none feel real. >> he is both romney and anti romney at the same time. coming up, rick santorum renews his defiant stance against the growing chorus calling for him to drop out of the race.

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we're competing effectively and here in the state of wisconsin, and we feel very good that we're going to have a good result here in wisconsin. we're going to have a strong showing, maybe even sneak in and have an upset. >> that was rick santorum this morning, once again sounding defiant going into tomorrow's primary but has santorum's path to the nomination hit a roadblock? a roadblock being the fact that he hasn't really won anything. well louisiana in a very long time, any key states. eric, i would never ask you to be a bet are man. if you had to read the tea leaves on this, obviously we have wisconsin tomorrow,

pennsylvania april 24th. if rick santorum doesn't win his home state, does he state in this race? >> pennsylvania's sort of the bench mark i think. if he doesn't win that, he's going to have a hard time. he's known all along april was a drought month for him. he had to just make it through april. he was going to suffer a lot of losses. i don't know that he can weather a loss in pennsylvania. it's a real tossup. is he lost it before when he ran for the senate. there's hatred of him there that's deep seeded. if he can make it to may, he can keep this going. >> this reminds me, i've said this before, we knew after south carolina newt gingrich had to sort of live off the land and so many bad puns can be made there. but he couldn't survive it basically. he had the valley of death and basically that ended his candidacy insofar as he had any real momentum. and it looks like exactly the same thing is happening with rick santorum and yet, maybe in may, maybe in may, he comes back from the south. the end game, of course, is that everybody i think understands at

this point and you the coalescing among the establishment that will romney is going to be the nominee. what role does santorum pay post-may? >> i think he is probably remembering is ronald reagan in '76. you know, everybody said get out, get out. and he stayed in and he started to win. and even though reagan did not get the nomination, ford got the nomination obviously, sitting president, but he established himself as a force to be reckoned with. i think santorum is probably thinking more about 2016. i don't see why he gets out. i would go to pennsylvania myself to go vote for him. i want him to stay in because i think it's great for us. if i were him, what does he get the establishment already doesn't like him. he gets a chance to establish himself as the conservative super power in the party. >> but he has to do so in a way that doesn't alienate party elders. >> i'm saying if he can squeak past in pennsylvania, i think he's looking at reagan '76.

>> and i'd go one further and say i've criticized santorum a lot. i think his views are retro grade but i think he is honest. i think he cares a great deal about the issues he is putting on the national stage. that's in one respect why some of these nonpolitical winners relating to restricting the rights of women keep coming up. i think part of what he may be doing is pushing the conservative energy and making sure there's a conservative running mate for governor romney even if it's not him and building his stature as such in the party which to go back to the politics makes him more important than he was a year ago. >> for sure. >> it is interesting because he does keep stoking the conservative flame. we talk about the etch a sketch moment and so on. but mitt romney has wrapped his arm around conservatism and pretty far right conservative principles is both social and fiscal. the ryan budget came out and mitt romney gave it a bear hug.

let's talk about the choice that will be facing voters this november and the fact that vice president joe biden understands that it is a fundamental argument about the american social compact, which is not something american voters are often treated to if we have that clip of the vice president. >> of all the times i've run for office, bob, this is the first time the republicans aren't hiding the ball. they're saying exactly what they think. i think this is going to be an incredibly stark choice the american people are going to have. not just on the economy but on social policy as well as educational policy. >> alicea, you're quickly nodding your head as you listen to the vice president talk about that. >> right, because they've handed democrats such a gift. you have mitt romney and paul ryan, two little peas in a pod. they want to privatize medicare and cut back medicaid. there is a growing attack on the middle class in this country that everyone can identify with. and as the vice president just said, they're not trying to be coy about it. they're being front and center.

>> even in wisconsin, you have romney supporting the efforts of scott walker to stay in office, scott walker opening up victory centers across the state. but there will abe record, not just of him as a massachusetts governor, but the platforms he's taken on and adopted as a candidate this year. let's play a little bit of the new ad from americans united for change going at mitt romney and paul ryan. >> ryan just voted again to replace medicare's guaranteed benefits with private vouchers that won't cover the cost of care. then he voted to give millionaires and big oil companies more tax breaks. can you imagine? congressman ryan pretends his vote against medicare is different this time, but really, does he think we were born yesterday? >> they're just going to say privatize medicare, privatize medicare over and over again till people are at the voting booths. >> look, this issue has never worked for them before. george bush at the height of his power moved to privatize social security.

he thought he had a mandate after the midterms and he didn't have it. he got shot down immediately and it was a big debacle for the republicans. i don't know how many times they have to learn this lesson. it's the third rail of politics for a reason. but they seem to enjoy getting electrocuted. >> let's not forget is the outcry in the town halls when ryan presented his new budget. after the break, as president obama meets with the leaders of mexico and canada, we'll take a look inside his re-election headquarters. can his team reenergize the base to win in november? we are going to ask the panel next. he's figured out a way to streamline deliveries and bought a more fuel efficient van all while trying to minimize price increases to his customers. for more, watch "your business"

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a new book hitting shelves tomorrow argues the hope gap in america is not just the fault of president obama. he shares the blame with millions of his once fervent supporters. in "rebuild the dream," van jones has plenty of critiques of the white house but also

believes the people who catapulted the senator to the oval office just stopped showing up. he writes too many of us treated obama's inauguration as some kind of finish line when we should have seen it as just the starting line. too many of us sat down at the very moment when we should have stood up. van, the book here, "rebuild the dream," do you think -- we talk about hope and change and you said earlier in the show this is about fear, not so much hope this go around. do you think seven months is enough time to rebuild the energy, whether that's a fearful energy or hopeful energy that president obama did in 2008? >> we'll see. i mean, the reason i wrote this book, you know, i think most of the people i know are what i call the post hope democrats. you know, democrats progressives. people like this president. they want him to be re-elected. they don't want a tea party president. they're not in love with him the way they were. part of that is because they know that just re-electing this president is not enough. we have to reenergize the base

and go beyond. i thought in 2008, went to d.c., we got the white house. we had pelosi, the best speaker ever. we thought we had everything we needed to govern. turns out we had a third of what we needed. it turns out you have to have a media attack machine the way fox has and a movement in the streets like the tea party. and by us not having the movement side of the leadership equation, we got beat. >> i want to bring in something that is in eric's magazine this week written by tim dickenson, hope 2.0. i thought this was a really important point as we talk about the movement. instead of deploying his loyalty army of 13 million citizen activists to pressure congress to enachis agenda, he essentially moth balled his massive campaign machine as soon as he took office. this shift from yes we can to i got this is the left many feeling like they'd fallen for a bait and switch. >> that's right. i think people expected obama not only to have this remarkable campaign machine but then to convert it into a machine for

governance. he didn't do that. he told everybody to sit down and shut up during the health care reform. for a community organizer to miss this opportunity for community organizing and to cede it to the republican who's did a miraculous job who in the face of all those things van described surrounded the capitol with people carrying guns. you know, they has an outside game and obama was relying entirely an inside game. >> a lot of what i say in the book is this. i was a grassroots outsider. then i became a white house insider. then i became an outsider again. one of the things that i think we got wrong, we can talking about what obama got wrong. we had the wrong theory of the president from the beginning. lbj did not lead the civil rights movement. that was dr. king -- you have to have two kinds of leadership if you want to change a country. a head of state willing to be

moved but you have to have a movement willing to do the moving. my argument is that under bush, we had a head of state that wouldn't listen and put millions of people in the street against the war he wouldn't listen. obama comes in, we sit down and who stands up is the tea party. it turns out that's movement in the streets like occupy wall street briefly was able to change the conversation. we've got to now re-elect the president so we can keep a head of state there but it was never supposed to be yes, he can. it's got to be yes, we canning. >> why were you the exception to the rule? why did they shut off what was an incredible campaign organization and go from as tom writes in rolling stone yes we can to i got this, you guys, just lean back. >> chill out. i got this. that was one of the great internet sensations. listen, in the book what i try to do is lay out my basic observation which is the ofa, the organization that was created, wound up -- it started out as this bottom up thing and

got captured by the dnc. it turns out the dnc -- >> that was a decision. >> that was a decision that was made at the top level of the party and hey listen, from their point of view, they kept the boots on the ground. even bill clinton who said i have a permanent campaign. he meant ads. they meant ads and boots on the ground. but it was for the re-election. we thought we had a movement that was for the people. we're going to have to build that ourselves. >> i agree with about 90% of what he's saying. there's an important point i disagree on and that is the way this was sold to the base. i did a 72-page report on ofa and interviewed dozens of people on the hill and people inside ofa. there was a deliberate attempt to take the 13 million person list and 25 million people on facebook and 2 million people on my barack obama.com and tell them they were going to do the thing you thought on the outside. when they were told they're going do this pressure grass roots thing from within ofa, a

special new sparnlt, a lot of people thought they meant it. i think that is a difference. having said that, i would have completely endorsed and from my time spent months talking to a lot of people on this i would endorse what van is saying. that will never come from within the government. you want to push the government, you need to build it outside of the government and occupy ultimately was one of the stronger examples of that. >> there's a famous story about fdr confronted about why he wasn't doing more on labor rights. he said to the labor rights activists make me do it. he meant i need you to create the conditions that force the government to act. that's what van's saying. ari is right. it was missold to people in a way they thought they could sit down and follow the script. there was no part in the script for them. >> self-confessional though because if there's anybody that can make a confession here, i'm one of those activists who went from being a grassroots person, everybody tried to go to d.c. a lot of us stopped being activists and started managing

access. usually the left you have this massive economic ca tatreau fee, two wars, the left should be in the streets. no, we're trying to manage our relationships with the white house while the right wing is in the street. we have to take some responsibility that we -- they had the wrong theory of the grassroots. white house. talk about that in the book. but we had the wrong theory of the presidency. both sides have to make an adjustment. we should never sit down again no matter what signals come from the white house. we stand, keep fighting, pull the white house forward. we walk with him when we can, ahead of them when we can't. >> to your point, eric, in terms of a grassroots movement affording the cannes for the president to take a strong stance, occupy wall street did more from changing the deficit cutting to income inequality, which has been a saudi arabia shift in the course of a year. i do want to bring in one other thing in your book, van. talking about the white house

not taking credit and messaging. you say socialist obama, quote unquote, was cutting taxes and keeping cops on the beat but at not point dollars democrats make a concerted effort to take credit for those aspects of the stimulus package. is throughout 2009, his last name should have been who cut taxes for 95% of americans. we talking about health care and the fact there is stuff in play right now benefiting americans, their children and yet a failure of messaging in the first couple years of this administration. >> it goes to van's point about the fact they thought they could default to him giving fancy speeches. no, they needed a much more proactive message. it's only now you're seeing fantastic videos, fantastic speeches where he is taking credit for everything from repealing don't ask, don't tell to passing a stimulus plan. >> to the affordable care act. >> but it's three years later now. so there's three years of us

calling obama care obama care in a pejorative way and only now saying hell yeah, it's obama care and you all benefit from it. >> it will be interesting to see how the president conducts himself the next couple months. he is an increditsable campaigner and does seem to have the wind in his sails. the republican positions on everything from women's health to other civil rights is a gift i think to the campaign infrastructure. coming up, while team obama ramps up its focus on women's rights, it remains silent on gay marriage. then again, so is the republican party. are both sides stuck at a crossroads? we'll dig into that next on "now." ♪ you are my sunshine, my only sunshine ♪

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women the care they rely on and inject themselves into decisions best made between a woman and her doctor. let's be clear here. women are not an interest group. >> that was a video message president obama recorded directly for planned parenthood focusing on a spate of recent republican-led social issues that attack women. massachusetts senate candidate elizabeth warren recently said, i want to see is the president evolve because i believe that is right. marriage equality is morally right. joining us now from washington is the legal director for the human rights campaign, brian molton. thanks for joining us. we've been talking a lot about social issues being wedge issues and not working well for republicans. but do you think that the president will take up gay rights in any substantive way and does he have anything to gain by taking up the nish advance of november? >> i think the president's going to continue to emphasize the

record he's developed over the past term on our issues. don't ask, don't tell repeal passage of a hate crimes law. so i don't think he's going to shy away from talking about that. but certainly, we would love to see him get there on the question of marriage. >> we know they'll american attitudes towards gay marriage shifted a lot in the past decade. i think what's interesting here is that even the republican party is acknowledging that. we will have recently a lot of prominent gopers backing off the issue of gay marriage. representative alan west said i personally have deep convictions about my children having a financially stable country they can live in. louis gohmert, a representative from texas says gay marriage is not something we're focused on now. hal rogers from kentucky says i don't hear it discussed much. is it strange to you you see th over reproductive rights which has swung far right, that gay

marriage has not been brought in at all. i ask you this, brian, especially given the fact that there was a memo released from 2009 made public last week that says the strategic goal, the national organization for marriage which is an anti-gay marriage non-profit says the strategic goal of this project is to drive a wedge between gays and blacks, two key democratic constituencies. given that logic, has it surprised you there isn't more talk about gay marriage. >> first of all, i think you're right in saying this is where the american people are going and the republicans are not ignorant of those polling numbers and the diversity of opinion on the issue in their own party. but i wouldn't say that the house leaders you talk to, you quoted there have stopped focusing on this issue. i think they just recognize that jobs and the economy is more what people want to hear from them. you still have the speaker of the house defending the defense of marriage act in court at height expense to american taxpayers. and we've recently seen efforts

on the house floor to you know, introduce marriage into debates around don't ask, don't tell, to attack marriage in the district of columbia. so i don't think they've given up on this issue at all. but maybe kind of see where the public polling is in advance of an election. they've moth balled for the time being in fact, perhaps. >> right. >> let's talk a little bit about the base though. van, when we talk about the president's position on some of this stuff, i mean, does he lose, if you talk about black voters versus progressive voters, the idea of driving a wedge, do you think he would lose some of the black vote if he did come out in support of gay marriage. >> i think if he came out as gay, he's not going to lose the black vote no matter what he does. i don't understand this particular strategy. certainly our numbers are a little bit more because we're more religious as a community. a little bit softer on some of the stuff. it's not a hard-core issue for that many black americans. i don't understand the argument

that gay marriage is a threat to marriage. it's not like there's some -- if the gay people get married, the heterosexual people have got to the get divorced. there's some shortage of marriage. it's kind of nuts. i think you can play to that sentiment. i don't think it shows up at the ballot box at all. >> why not come in support of it? it's much like, i think there's a broad acknowledgement and brian, you know better than i do that the president is in support of gay marriage. he just can't say it yet. >> well, you know, i think it's clear that he's very supportive of the community. we take him at his word he's evolving. we would hope he would evolve on this issue soon. >> and then when you have someone like elizabeth warren out there, alicia, saying i think it's -- it's a morally right thing to do to support gay marriage, how effective is that in moving the dial and pressuring the president or pressuring those who have yet to support gay marriage to support

it. >> there's such a complicated calculus where the number of people who turn out for barack obama who weren't going to before are very slim and the number of people reenergized because of this issue outweighs those people. above all else what you see is the gay community really got it right. they understood that they needed to approach this on two fronts. one a cultural shift. the polling has changed in large part because of cultural efforts, characters on television, things liking that that really affect people's lives and then when you have something like the new york state legislature, they played "hardball" and knew which votes they needed to go after. this is what van is talking about. this is how you build change from the outside. >> that's right. >> brian moultton from the human rights campaign, thank you for your time. we are sure to be revisiting this issue throughout the year. >> thank you. after the break, a historic election in burma raises questions about revolutions, democracy and sanctions. we'll put it in context. that's next. i love that my daughter's part fish.

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we hope that this will be the beginning of a new era where there will be more emphasis on the rule of the people in the everyday politics of our country. >> that was nobel peace prize lawyer you'd and burmese activist aung san suu kyi speaking after her win yesterday. it was the first time in two decades her supporters were allotted to vote for her. today the white house called the vote an important first step in burma's democratic transformation. peter pop anham is the author of the la"the lady and the peacock" i am half burmese. this is an issue close to my heart. i have a memory of being in rangoon, the capital city. she lives -- they shut down the road in front of her house.

she is now likely going to have a seat in the new government. now there are a lot of question marks about that government. it's a very big day for those of us who have watched this country in turmoil. tell us about the book and where you see this moment in tumors of burmese history. >> it's pleasing moment, isn't it? it's one which very few people would have imagined. even a year ago, it can looed improbable. everything started in august last year when she had a meeting with the president who turned out, although he's a former general, he was a prime minister during the time of the saffron revolution. it turned out he's actually a reformist and she believes he's honest and sincere. and so everything has come in rapid succession in the past eight months. >> you know, we look, she is going to have her party, the national league for democracy will have representation in the new parliament rpt, overwhelmingly the military government will be the most potent force inside the government. but it is still change. and given the fact that she is

such a figurehead inside of burma, one would imagine her influence will be outside her actual voting power. let's talk a little bit about democracy and elections broadly with you guys. i want to play the white house statement or actually read to you the white house statement on the burmese elections. we congratulate the people of burma on their participation in the electoral process. this election is an important step in burma's democratic transformation and we hope it is an indication that the government of burma intends to continue along the path of greater openness, transparency and reform. it's a really interesting position for the united states. we have some very, very stringent sanctions in place in burma, long critical of the repressive military regime. as you said, the dynamic between the u.s. and burma has changed dramatically. tell us a little bit about that. >> that's right. and i think the u.s. position on

sanctions which as you say is tougher than any other country, notably tougher than the europeans, for example, have been vindicated. for a long time people people said they're not doing any good. burma is mireed in poverty but refusing to change. what use are sanctions? but as i say, finally they've come good in a strange way because at the sort of forced burma into the arms of the chinese. and it is to back out of that very tight chinese embrace that is that insane is turning with evident. >> although some people will argue that the burmese people have suffered disproportionately under these conditions. the average burmese citizen gets $5 in aid from the u.s. in cambodia, it's $3 a month in aid. it is a dramatic disparity. broadly speaking we're looking at places like iran and syria. hillary clinton said it's too early to know what the progress of recent months mean.

there are no guarantees what lies ahead for the people of bush ma but after a day of responding to a brutal dictator in syria who would rather distroy his own country, it is heartening to be reminded even the most repressive society can reform and the most closed society can open. there is a difference between what's happening in the middle east and what's happened in burma. there was the saffron revolution led by the burmese monks, people were out in the streets. that sort of went nowhere. contrast that to what has happened in egypt and across the middle east. talk about that in terms of u.s. positioning on this and the sort of tricky moment we may in. eric, you talk in your magazine about the power of the crowds, the power of youth movements. and you know, as we look back on this period in global history, how much -- i mean, will we look at it -- will the influence of the sort of revolutionary protests be seen as a positive one? >> i think it's too soon to tell because i think we're still in

the middle of that movement and of those movements. they're all very different and all going to play out in all different kinds of ways. part of the problem is when you place your hopes on a charismatic leader and when the movement as we've been talking about with boep, when the movement comes to coalesce around a personality, it can be brought up short in the long-term with indira gandhi, was benazir bhutto, in the philippines we've seen time and time again where very strong women leaders have led revolutionary movements and found themselves mieed in the corruption and inequalities and inaction of the system because their election does not automatically change that. so the question in burma is, is she going to be able to mobilize a different kind of movement. >> and that is, of course, the question is once she is in the wheels of government and a participant in the new government, will her reputation stay as untarnished or will the

hope remain alive as it does today? a fascinating story, a part of the world worth watching. thanks to peter popham, author of lady and the peacock." coming up mitt romney's son tag takes to twitter to strike back at the hit show "mad men." details on that next. the chevy cruze eco also offers 42 mpg on the highway. actually, it's cruze e-co, not ec-o. just like e-ither. or ei-ther. or e-conomical. [ chuckling ] or ec-onomical. pa-tato, po-tato, huh? actually, it's to-mato, ta-mato. oh, that's right. [ laughs ] [ car door shuts ] [ male announcer ] visit your local chevy dealer today. now very well qualified lessees can get a 2012 chevy cruze ls for around $159 per month. e.p.a. estimated 36 miles per gallon highway.

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>> you want me to turn down the tv? >> fine. henry francis. well, tell jim he's not going to michigan. because romney's a clown and i doesn't want him standing next to him. >> welcome back. time for what now. that was a scene from last night's "mad men." sorry, spoiler alert. that took a swipe at mitt romney's father, george romney. today tag romney, mitt's son

responded to the scene tweeting seriously, lib mocking my dead grandpa. >> you know, just let it go. draper charisma, romney no charisma. >> since when is "mad men" account liberal media. >> i would think they'd be very comfortable with the gender roles on that show. >> i think the problem romney really is draper. who is he? >> a man who the image of the father or the absent father. >> and last night's episode was about betty. don't take the focus off betty. >> exactly. they keep stepping on the women. >> you know what, it's the phrase romney's a clown that tagg romney is seizing on. nobody wants his grandparents referred to as a clown. ashton kutcher is set to play steve jobs. ashton kutcher is set to play steve jobs in the mu indy biopic

jobs. it will chronicle his rise from a hippie in northern california to co-founder of apple. how do you greet that news, alicia? >> when you look at jobs, jobs was so esthetically focused. i think he would be happy someone so beautiful was playing him. i'm serious. i there -- whether or not the intellect is there, i think the sheer beauty of ashton -- >> not impugning ashton kutcher, but the intellectual heft of steve yobs jobs, his life filling those shoes. >> he's reading from a script though. >> "two and a half men" goes to -- okay, we're going to move on to another little tidbit. goldman sachs is the private equity fund is selling its shares of vil voice media after finding out that the company runs a sex traffic website back page.com. this is fairly serious. nick christophe has a great op-ed saying there's no doubt many escort ads were placed by

consenting adults but goes on to say in one recent case, prosecutors say a 158-year-old girl was drugged, tied up and sold to johns through back page and other sites. this is about oversight in terms of investments. apparently they were trying to shed shares as early as 2010 but back page has been very profitable in the last two years holding our wall streeters accountable. >> this is the least of goldman's problems. goldman has a lot of other stuff where they're ripping off their own investors referring to them as mutombos, tanking the global economy. it's a serious problem but it's easy for a big investment house to get invested in something that it doesn't know all the nuts and bolts about. it's good they backed out and trying to get a publicity bump out of this. there's a lot of worst things that need attention. >> thanks again to ari, van jones, alicia and eric. i'll see you back here tomorrow at noon eastern, 9:00 a.m. when i'm joined by rachel maddow, governor ed rendell and frank

rooney. until then suc find us at fas book/now/alex. happy monday to you, andrea. >> thanks so much. coming up my interview with secretary of state hillary clinton from istanbul. what it's going to take sir to stop syria's president assad and what she is saying about 2016. >> plus, autism speaks, the founders bob and suzanne wright on world autism awareness day and why they say it's a public endemic. president obama's rose garden news conference with the leaders ofext all that on "andrea mitchell reports." >> update middle of the country very warm once again today. thunderstorms late today. some of the big cities in the northeast, you're finally watching things clearing out. this afternoon, sunshine.

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campbell's chunky -- it's amazing what soup can do. four minutes, around four bucks. for a hot dog cart. my mother said, "well, maybe we ought to buy this hot dog cart and set it up someplace." so my parents went to bank of america. they met with the branch manager and they said, "look, we've got this little hot dog cart, and it's on a really good corner. let's see if we can buy the property." and the branch manager said, "all right, i will take a chance with the two of you." and we've been loyal to bank of america for the last 71 years. we don't want to give assad the excuse of being able to negotiate with no end. >> right now on "andrea mitchell reports," deadlines for assad. hillary clinton says the world cannot wait as the u.s. moves closer to helping the rebels. this hour, my interview with secretary clinton on syria, iran, and the rhetoric again